Hybrids On The Lower Meramec

[Gavin]

Nice catches! I have a buddy in Illinois who chases em with the fly a bit...He likes to fish Clinton Lake Spillway...usually with a 9-10wt.

[Bird Watcher]

Eric, everyone is saying that about Hybrids.....I'm finding alot of the Hybrid addicts like to get them on the long rod. Jesus man I have a 7 wt not sure if it would be enough but, it would be fun to try.....not sure if I posess the skill required to do it with a flyrod.

Birdwatcher, you seem to know more about these than I do also Andy. My questions are many 1) these come from the stockings in the Mississippi and other lakes where they were stocked and then they swim after food their whole life and swim up the Meramec????They are a highly negative and positive flow fish. Meaning, they like to take off and run down rivers and up rivers during periods of high water. They have a very hard time keeping them stocked in a lot of reservoirs because of this. I don't think there is anything definite about Hybrids. You always have to remember that they are a cross between white bass and a striper. Sometimes they act like a white bass and sometimes they act like a striper is my opinion. Some of them will roam constantly in search of food and some of them will become somewhat homebodies if they find a spot they like. It seems to me like a portion of the population will prefer to stay in open water roaming in search of bait fish, another portion will live up in the tributaries almost year round, and another portion of the population will migrate back and forth between the two.

2) do they reproduce????That is a highly contested topic in a lot of circles. The easy answer is no, but there have been some limited cases where they think they have had limited success. They go through all the motions of spawning and produce eggs and sperm. In other words, they think they spawn and you can use that behavior to find and catch them in the spring and sometimes maybe they do actually get it done.

3) do they ever stay in an area or just move on???? they seem to be a hard fish to get a pattern going on.They are an extremely hard fish to stay on. When you are on them, it seems easy, then they move and will make you crazy looking for them, but remember what I wrote up above. Some of them are always there. They just don't always bite. I spent a lot of time over the last three years fishing for them in a gin clear stream. You would be suprised at how they will ignore a live shad bounced right off their nose if they aren't feeding, but then catch one and get the school fired up and you might catch a dozen in a short amount of time. My opinion is that three things influence when and how they move, in this order. 1. current and flow, 2. baitfish, 3. temperature, although i really think 2 and 3 are more equal than #1. The reason I say is, I think that they are the most effective predator in the water. It doesn't take an over abundance of baitfish for them to get all they want to eat. They can basically catch shad at will when they want to, so it doesn't always take an over abundance of baitfish to satisfy them. it only takes enough, make sense? The other is that I think there are times when water temperature effects them more than bait. You will read that they are tolerant of high water temps and aren't bothered by them, but they are 1/2 striper. They may not need cooler water in the summer to survive, but I think they want it. Know what I mean?

Andy you're making get my boat ready to fish the Mississippi down near S. Illinois

[Guest]

deleted

[mic]

Hey Smallie,

Sorry to hear about your dog. Great story on the hybrid. What are they a hybrid of?

PS... Did you get my email?

[Wayne SW/MO]

Mic there are two different hybrids, both striper/white bass, but the parental gender makes them slightly different, or so I've read. The Sunshine and Pametto are the names given the two strains and one is prefered, but I can't remember which.

[Smalliebigs]

Bird Watcher, wow thanks for the info!!!! If you don't mind in your triumphs and trials on the Dark side have you noticed do Hybrids travel and feed with Whites???? Am I just getting lucky and picking off a few as they swim upstream to un ending quest they live??? I have never caught Hybrids on the lower Meramec but, as someone who sees the forage available....gizzards,mooneye,skippy's all repoducing pretty good in that part of the river.......I think Hybrids should be stocked in the Meramec basin somewhere to control the fish I just spoke of as they grow fast and get to big for the bass....I'm sorry perch I guess...........it will never happen but, it would be cool

[Bird Watcher]

Bird Watcher, wow thanks for the info!!!! If you don't mind in your triumphs and trials on the Dark side have you noticed do Hybrids travel and feed with Whites???? Am I just getting lucky and picking off a few as they swim upstream to un ending quest they live??? I have never caught Hybrids on the lower Meramec but, as someone who sees the forage available....gizzards,mooneye,skippy's all repoducing pretty good in that part of the river.......I think Hybrids should be stocked in the Meramec basin somewhere to control the fish I just spoke of as they grow fast and get to big for the bass....I'm sorry perch I guess...........it will never happen but, it would be cool

I like talking about them since they are basically all I think about from March to November anyway, at least as far as fishing is concerned. I don't know if any of this will help you or not, but I know when I started out chasing them, it was very hard to find good information about them. There's a lot of information on the net about Stripers, and there is some information about Hybrids in large reservoirs, but you'll find out that most of the information about catching them in rivers and tributaries is hard to come by. I don't know if they aren't targeted as much in rivers and creeks or if people who do are just close mouthed about it. Probably a litle of both. I know I usually try to stay pretty tight lipped about it just because in that small water, I think too many boats banging around up in there will ruin it.

They are usually near where the white bass are and sometimes they are mixed right in with them, but not always. There doesn't necessarily need to be white bass around for you to know you are near the hybrids and just because the white bass are around doesn't necessarily mean there are hybrids around. It's suprising some of the baits that people will catch them on. I've heard of liver, worms, shad guts, shiners and then all the assortment of artificials, but they really like shad. They get so keyed in on shad sometimes that you can't even get them to look at anything else. Don't get me wrong, when they are actively feeding you can catch them on a lot of different baits. I like spook jrs, chug bugs, and soft plastic swim baits. When they are keyed in on the shad though, especially in clear water, in can be really frustrating trying to get them to look at anything else, although I will say this. The only thing I've seen work close to as good as live shad is the flies that my buddy throws at them. You could probably PM Bill Butts on this forum for a recipe as he is an accomplished temperate bass fly fisher who is good friends with the guy I'm talking about. He also knows a lot about temperate bass. I would call him an expert on them actually. He may chime in if he sees this.

They use them in a lot of waters as a management tool for the shad population. They can't really get the extremely large baitfish, say >9" or so, in their mouth real well, unlike the stripers that will eat the 10-12"ers. I have caught them before on some 10+" shad though. They will get so aggressive that they will choke down those big shad and you won't even have a hook in them. The bait is just lodged in their mouth. Not for very long though. They'll make a run and it will pull out. To me, the perfect size shad is 5-8" That size bait will prevent the white bass from attacking it as much but is easily eaten by a 5+ pound hybrid.

I would guess that your fish are either on their way back out of that watershed after a spring run or are pulled up into it seeking the cooler water if the big river is getting warm. The place you described is textbook habitiat though. The first big riffle and shoal up from the main body of water with current present. If you can find that on other smaller tribs in your area, you should find more of them, especially if they are cooler water.

good luck with them. They are an awesome fish. Especially up in the creeks like that. Don't get discouraged if it takes awhile to get back on them. You will figure their movements out if you stick with it. I once went 37 times in a row without a bite! Crazy huh? But now I rarely get skunked. It just takes figuring out the spots they like to congregate and then figuring out what makes them go there. You gotta remember, there are not near as many of those fish in the water as any other type of fish. There can't be, they are man made. No way their numbers are ever going to compare to the numbers produced by mother nature in other species so you are looking for the needle in a haystack of fish.

[Hog Wally]

My local conservation agent confirmed my 20" hybrid from the upper Meramec near Stanton my question what the freak was he doing up there. I chase these fat slobs all year at Bagnell and Truman but agent Wright says they swim where they want As far as stocking goes how about hybrids and walleye getting stocked in the good Ol merry mackerel

[Hog Wally]

How do I post pictures

[Born to Fish]

I just got hooked on hybrids this summer! Caught 4 in a KS reservoir a couple of weeks ago and my 14 year old son caught his first 2 just last Thursday! We were using 7/8 oz jigging spoons. They are second, behind the striper, for the hardest fighting fresh water fish pound for pound, in my opinion.